Krakatoa Forever My Friend

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Put up a Parking Lot, Pennsboro Speedway, a Phoenix Rising.

Nestled in the catacombs of our memories lie tragedy and inevitability. Pennsboro, WV, a sleepy town of almost 1,200 people is stirring, pushing for new life to an old habit. A secure place with it’s own particular history and a populace not floundering with the future but embracing it. Not a parking lot or apartment complex but a resounding family affair, apparent and growing.

Every Autumn has it’s flourish and the long hard and cold Decembers seem so lonely and desperate. Hedging next year as profoundly more important than past and yet feeling that some person in a high place with a well-kept lawn sees no use. No reason to deal with the noise (in the middle of nowhere- basically) and for a few votes suppressing a good thing.

The good people of the past feel a particular melancholy, with the sounds of mechanics tools and a desperate driver preparing for a feature uncertain of it’s end. Wives and children sit silently as drivers don helmets and safety restraints. The sound from the PA system alerts drivers to go to the staging area and so it goes.

Not many are paid except maybe feature payouts for a lucky few and the money and time spent getting it right and knowing that if you do not get more sponsors it may be over anyway.

Anyhow, that is next week’s problem or next year or whatever. The track is dry or maybe too wet but somehow the job gets done and it is time to race, inspite of everything. But in the lonely dell at the edge of the treeline sits people ready for action. Tomorrow will come by and by.

People who are proud and proud of the flag, bowing reverently with hand over heart and a prayer for the safety of all. It is a special night. Another night celebrating the sacrifce of Veterans and active duty types. That and first responders, heroes in any regard.

Like at many tracks pictures and accounts are numerous but when they are not and when older fans and drivers want to think back on those days and the joys they brung then these stories and photos bring that back for awhile. I will enclose a couple links so that you can see more of this great history of this track and remember sponsors because ultimately these sponsors and investors are needed to keep a track going.

This facebook account above you can regard as a portal to all things related to Pennsboro Speedway and Fairgrounds. They will keep you posted on events and initiatives for the track.

I have worked on around 100 radio stations as a broadcaster and Meteorologist and I have seen a few tracks come and go and includes tracks like Hales Corner Speedway, USA International in Lakeland, Fairgrounds Speedway (Tampa), Golden Gate Speedway and a few others and I hate that. The tracks that remain face issues of rainouts, selling out to new owners and I can guarantee you this, that the people of Nazareth dirt and the tri-oval were back. There are some things that matter and to the racing community this is literally life and death. Non-fans and politicians may not see the intrinsic good in a race facility but it is more than a sport. It is an event and culturally invaluable.